Just as all the beads of a rosary fall down when the thread is cut, so also if we who want to destroy all thoughts scrutinize the first parson thought, ‘I’, which runs through and sustains all the second and third person thoughts like the thread through the beads, all of them will be effortlessly destroyed. “… When the first person ceases to exit through one’s enquiry into the truth of that first person, then the existence of the second and third persons will come to an end ….” ‘Ulladhu Narpadhu’, verse 14 Thus, the method of destroying the ‘I’-thought is also the method which will destroy all other thoughts. Therefore, what is essential is to destroy the first person thought, ‘I’. The only way to destroy it is to scrutinize its nature! There is no other way!! “…How else to attain that state wherein ‘I’ (the ego) does not rise – the state of egolessness – unless we seek the source whence ‘I’ rises?…” ‘UIladu Narpadhu’, verse 27 Even in the path of self-surrrender, which is the path of devotion (bhakti), the destruction of the first person, the thought ‘I’, is achieved by surrendering it to God, having come to know the worthlessness of its nature (either by knowing that the ego-’I’ is non-existent, or by knowing that Self, the real ‘I’, is the sole existence). Thus, all that is necessary is to enquire into the first person ‘I’-thought alone. We shall see in chapter seven, ‘Self-Enquiry’, how it is destroyed by means of enquiry.